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Stone Quartet - Live at Vision Festival

Ken Waxman, JazzWord

(reviewed along with MMM Quartet - Live at the Metz Arsenal)

Two high-quality CDs, recorded in a live setting with French bassist
Joëlle Léandre as the unifying factor, are superficially similar in
intent and personnel. Yet the multiple strategies each quartet brings to
the extended selections demonstrate how unique sounds can result even
in the most comfortable of surroundings.

Live at the Vision Festival captures the triumphant performance
of what might be called Léandre’s New York quartet, filled out by
trumpeter/flutist Roy Campbell, pianist Marilyn Crispell and violist Mat
Maneri. Although recorded in France, Live at the Metz Arsenal, joins
the bassist with two colleagues who teach at California’s Mills College –
Alvin Curran on electronics and piano, best known for his notated work
and membership in the MEV ensemble, and guitarist Fred Frith, whose
entry into improv came through his Art-Rock bands like Henry Cow.
Although MMM could stand for “MillsMusicMafia”, some Continental spice
joins the West Coast greenery in the presence of Swiss soprano and tenor
saxophonist Urs Leimgruber, who has been in other bands with Léandre,
including Quartet Noir which also included Crispell.

Fundamentally it’s the discursive oscillations plus conspicuous
musical samples from Curran’s electronics plus Frith’s reshaped and
flanged guitar distortion that define the interactions here with
Léandre’s consistent arco swipes and Leimgruber’s circular breathing
adding to the resulting polyphony. Sporadically unforeseen connections
take place, as when the saxophonist’s staccato trills gradually meld
with swelling and electronic pulses; or when chiming guitar licks and
slurred, bagpipe-like drones from the saxophonist combine into a solid
line; or when the bassist puts aside her stentorian string pumping for
agile soprano-pitched yodeling, matching the snatches of broadcast
vocals captured by Curran’s hardware.

Nonetheless Curran’s tremolo pianism is as essential to shaping
the improvisations as his crackling and fluctuating wave forms. Should
signal-processed delays or synthesized sequences not underlie the
acoustic work, than sonic clues occasionally arise from string plucks or
plucks emanating from the piano’s innards. Other times, swelling,
sampled orchestral passages are met with percussive slaps and stops from
both string players; while discordant output signals spawn equally
discordant spetrofluctuation and multiphonic reed bites from the
saxophonist. By the final variation, pastoral interludes are pushed
aside as the mercurial sound development hardens into a squirming
broken-octave finale replete with jangling electronic synthesis. Curran
swiftly pounds his keys; Léandre buzzes sul ponticello runs from the
bottom of her string set; Frith solidifies his chromatic rasgueado; and
Leimgruber’s twisted shrilling turns to strained vibrations.

As acoustically balanced as the MMM Quartet is dependent on
discordant electronics; the Stone Quartet still makes as much use of
Crispell decisive comping as Curran’s skilled ostinato was put to use on
the other disc. With Crispell alternating between a cushion of
cascading glissandi and a series of strummed kinetic lines, the others
are free to experiment. This doesn’t mean that the pianist doesn’t offer
up measures of descriptive delicacy or that Léandre doesn’t
occasionally step into the rhythmic breech with pressurized shuffle
bowing. Still the scene is set for unfettered soloing which includes
triplet-laden expansions from Campbell; angled yet avuncular string
strokes from Maneri; and burlesque bel canto vocalizing from Léandre,
often accompanied by strums and vibrations from all parts of the bass as
well as Campbell’s flute asides. Following an interlude when Crispell
asserts herself in a two-handed fantasia, before downshifting back to
processional runs, the climax is reached with the melding of taut
spiccato viola lines; snapping trumpet rasps and speedy glissandi from
both the pianist and bassist.

Calling on the individual talents of two sets of trios, Léandre
proves that satisfying improvisations can be created without
pre-conceptions, but with ideal considerations of each member’s skills.